Greetings people! "Clean Up" is our entry for the "YouTube Project: Direct" challenge. We basically rushed last minute to make the deadline. Written, shot, edited over 3 days (around 16 hours total). Check it out and let us know what you think. The story's not that original, for that I apologize. But hopefully you dig the visuals/editing.

I've been trying to finish this project for about a year. I shot it for a competition (shot 2 other pieces along with it) and failed to complete it in time. The script is a bit convoluted and caused me mental anguish trying to wrap my head around the flow for the edit. Started over a few times, tried different approaches, all failed. I finally figured out a way to get through it and pulled together the pieces from the various fora I'm on and have been sharing my progress with.

I'm hoping that this page illustrates not only the post production workflow I use, but the various ways in which you can change your approach to circumvent problems. I'm currently editing all of the parts form each location separately, even though they are intercut in the script and will be in the final edit. This finally got me through the rut and I'm happy with my progress this time around.

Feel free to watch, laugh, join in the fun, rip it apart (no where near done at this point, but still fun). Keep in mind, I haven't touched the audio or color yet, just assembly editing at this point... we also shot it in a day and a half, so I'm pretty happy with the results... we then went on to shoot another (won its category) short the second day and the third the weekend after (outdoors in 20F weather :) ).

I'm actually very excited to share this with you all as I think it's good to illustrate the post side - not just tips and tricks but how to wrap your head around footage that confounds you and how to approach an angry edit that is snarling at you (carry pork chops in your pockets, they can be mean and bitey).

I've even gone so far as to post the full recordings as they appear on tape in lower resolutions for folks who want to dig into those and edit them as well without having to shoot anything. The sound was shot with an ATR-55 shotgun around fluorescents and resulted in a very buzzy recording which we couldn't do anything about at the time (it prompted us to buy an MA-100 to move to a balanced XLR audio system).

I finally finished the first of 5 videos covering our round trip through Australia.

This part shows Sydney, the Blue Mountains and the Ku-ring-gai-Chase national park.
In the German comment at the beginning I explain that we have just arrived in time for the 75th anniversary Harbour Bridge festival and that the trip will take as from New South Wales to Queensland, the Northern Territories, Western Australia and on the way back home to Dubai.

This film would never have been made if this forum wasn't around, the advice and information I've gained here has been huge. Per Johan from UWOL even helped out with footage so it's really a DVInfo community effort in a way.